Set Description:
Dark Horse Comics: Sep 1990 - Mar 1992
“Ready for a bit of the old ultra violence?”(A Clockwork Orange) If you are continue; but if you are weak or faint hearted I highly recommend skipping this series and description all together. I’m sure there is a Captain America or Squirrel Girl set you can go read about, see ya.
If you are still here I trust that you have read this satyrical “curb stomp” at least once if not multiple times. I can’t imagine anyone that finds this material “offensive”, “mysogynistic”, “disgusting” or “trashy” would even bother looking this title up in the registry in the first place. Welcome to Parabellum’s thoughts on Dark Horse’s HARD BOILED.
HARD BOILED had some of the most bone crushing material of the late copper/early modern era. If you were looking for the extreme of sex and violence this Frank Miller classic was the pot of gold at the end of your dark and twisted rainbow. A dystopian futuristic Los Angelos where corporate conglomerates create cybernetic assassins to eliminate their competition with a body count that far exceeds all 80’s action movies combined. Seriously, it is mind blowing how many people bite the dust in just three issues and Miller doesn’t ease the reader into it. Oooooh no my fellow comic lovers, by page #3 you are introduced to Nixon aka Unit Four at the tail end of an “assignment” with a face melting splash page of him looking like he got fired out of a “s—t cannon” surrounded by corpses. The background characters and the world they occupy are just as insane as the premise. You have bondage gear wearing dog walkers, sex clubs with random people being chainsawed in and amongst the orgy, vending machines with firearms and explosives all the while “normal” citizens go about their daily business. If there is one word to describe this entire storyline the closest comparison and I still wouldn’t be doing it justice would be pure mayhem.
Now lets talk about the interior art. Geof Darrow…need I say more? This amazingly talented individual with immaculate attention to detail made his mainstream day beau with HARD BOILED. What a way to come out of the gate! I mean it was like watching an Olympic Sprinter run the 100 meter dash powered by pure nitros. There are no short cuts with Mr. Darrow. Every conceivable detail is hashed out and put in its place. Not one aspect is glossed over; clothing, background, mechanical equipment, etc. is there for your visual enjoyment. I have probably read this series over a hundred times and have spent hours examining each layout and I still don’t believe I have seen every “nook and cranny”. The level of consistency throughout was exceptional, each page is worthy of being cover art. From what I have read Geoff actually penciled and inked each panel full size and then shrunk them down to fit the page layout. Bottom line, this man is without peer in the world of comic illustration. I don’t think there is or ever will be anyone that draws like Geof Darrow. To whom the person is that gave him his break into comics, I sincerely THANK YOU. Because of you, us readers have gotten to witness some of the best comic art for over three decades.
I consider myself lucky enough to have been able to purchase this series when it was released. It sold out rather quickly and trying to find a back issue was difficult due to its popularity at the time. When scanning the comic rack these issues completely stood out from the rest. The presentation of the book was actually well thought out; it’s almost magazine sized, bone white background with Geoff’s phenomenal, “neck snapping” wrap around covers and the name, ”HARD BOILED” in bold black or red lettering. “What is this?”, I said to myself as I grabbed a copy to examine. While lurking through the pages I was completely blown away. It was almost too much to take in at the time and there was…NUDITY!
Here is a bit of “back in my day” for the young folks. Understand that decades ago, before Google, adult material was not a few keystrokes away, you had to possess a physical piece of media. It was a complicated process that entailed either swiping it from a family members stash (undetected) or smuggled through the adolescent “black market”. Getting apprehended with said contra ban in most cases could get you and your accomplices nothing short of a trial by court marital with parental units. It was a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
Now back to our regularly scheduled program…
The level of chaos was over stimulating to my 12 year old brain. I couldn’t make sense of it all at the comic shop, I had to take this home for further study. I take a gander at the cover price, “$4.95!!!! That’s like two comics!”. I was a little surprised because this was one issue not a trade paperback, “Only one story for this price!?”. I obviously needed to pay for this book and the disposable income for a pre-teen is rather limited so I had to make wise choices. I decided it was worth a shot and also my parents were really cool about giving me extra chores for a slight pay increase in my allowance. I could make up the cost over the next couple of weeks. After closer examination I decided that my initial assumption was correct and that my purchase was a smart one. I am now ready for issue #2 the following month….nope. The month after that….? No, sir. In comes the month of December and just like Santa Claus delivering toys to all the good boys and girls the comic version of old Saint Nick delivered HARD BOILED issue #2! I feel this issue answered a lot questions that arose while reading issue #1 and delivered the same amount of action. I enjoyed how the story was coming together and I was curious about how Miller was going to bring this series home. Little did I know at the time it was going to be a 13 month wait! Needless to say I had plenty of time to save up an extra $4.95. When I saw issue #3’s cover I didn’t get it at first. Then it hit me, “Did he just shoot this guy through the face and I am looking through the hole?!” Then in classic Darrow fashion you flip to the back cover and your question is answered, “Yep, through the face into another guys face.” Oh Geof you’re just showing off now. I felt it was a great conclusion to the story leaving room for a possible sequel or sequels. Unfortunately that never came to pass. I’ve heard rumblings about a possible film adaptation over the years but I’m not holding my breath.
Similar to a few other sets that I have collected I never planned on assembling these books in 9.8. I just happened to be scanning through eBay and out of curiosity and did a quick search on this series. A 9.8 copy of issue #2 was there and it was a Frank Miller Signature Series. It peaked my interest not only because it was a 9.8 copy but I had always wanted a Frank Miller signature. The price was fair so I made my purchase. Now that I’ve once again committed to completing another series I set up the typical ebay notification feature. Roughly a month and half goes by and up pops a copy of issue #1 and #3 both Signature Series as well but they are double signatures, Miller and Darrow. I wait however many days the auction was and made sure I won. Can’t have an incomplete set now can we? I don’t really know the exact census numbers on these books and I don’t really care. This set was bought based strictly on nostalgia not any type of “investment” or collecting goal.
Art by Geof Darrow |